Coming back to watch an old classic. And oh boy! It's even better than I remember it.
I was expecting to enjoy the film but ultimately find it waning.
However it's an marvellous movie. I think a vast amount of people on the Internet are either over exaggerating their problems with the movie or simply haven't seen it.
I suppose there's a third option that they just don't like the movie; which is fair enough. But then why put so much effort into talking about it to begin with.
Now I'm not blind. This movie had a load of internal problems before it came out. It was supposed to be a TV show or it was supposed to be a different movie. The plot is kind of all over the place with what they were wanting to do.
Then they shoved it into this movie and It ultimately came out as something kind of slow.
But I think it worked out overall. This is the only Star Trek movie that really felt like it belonged with the original television show.
Star Trek 2 all the way up to six (and some would argue even Generations) kind of feels like it's in its own separate Universe; Connected with the original show but ultimately its own thing.
But I just love how this movie came out. It didn't go down the action route. It has a slow build-up of a story with two major conflicts. The first one is the very obvious threat of the unknown space Cloud that destroys Klingon ships and is heading on its way to Earth. The second is the internal conflict with Captain Kirk and former Captain Decker as he wants to reclaim the Glory Days of his past and is now pushing down another guy to do it.
Speaking of Captain Kirk this is the only movie where William Shatner's character actually feels like the original Kirk. Every movie after this William Shatner is playing the slightly exaggerated more Shakespearean version of his character. It's not a bad thing but it really paints a different image from how Captain Kirk worked in the original series. I think a lot of Captain Kirk's stereotypes and exaggerations come out of the film's more than the original show.
James T Kirk coming back into command and learning to not be a complete ass is one of the more interesting parts of the movie. Although I do think the ending was a little convenient for Kerk because Decker literally fused with the Earth satellite Voyager and blinked himself out of existence. Which by the way is the ultimate in the red shirt sacrifice.
Oh sure Decker wasn't wearing a red shirt but he was the 4th tag along to the main group and you knew he wasn't coming back.
The set design is where this movie really shines. It all has that nice movie flare to it but it hasn't gone completely overboard you can't believe that this still exist in the same Worlds the original series.
Everything looks new and crisp and clean. Which is a wonderful contrast with the characters who are all getting older and more divided from each other. Everybody reacts with each other the way you would expect them to. They're all still friends technically but because it's been something like 10 to 20 years they don't really know how to react anymore. It's great to just watch everybody really interact with each other.
It's the true excitement of the film which only makes it all the more important considering the rest of the film is just slow shots of a spaceship going through a larger spaceship or going through a weird Wormhole that was created via the warp drive.
There's something that's so intrinsically interesting about the idea of a space probe getting lost in the opposite ends of the universe and then trying to find its way back home via a miscommunication.
It also creates a near-perfect excuse for why the cloud was going back to Earth. That's always a complaint in movies like this, ''why does everything have to be centred on Earth?'' But then if you don't centre it on Earth everybody goes; ''Oh no Planet 'Moo-boo Kazooie-zoo is under attack! Well who could care''. So really you can't make heads or tails of any of these people, especially when all they want to do is nitpicking a movie to death.
Is Star Trek the motion picture worth your time? For most people I would say no.
Go watch the second film or Star Trek 6. Better yet go watch number 4 that's the one most people like the most.
But if you like slower science fiction or you're more into the strange and oddly fascinating exploration; Then yeah the original Star Trek film is great.
And if you like the original series you'll probably find something to like here. Or maybe you'll hate it because any deviation from the Orthodoxy of the original program is considered a sin in some people's eyes.
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